Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is now famous for his hatred of cannabis. Sessions rescinded Obama-era rules in January that prevented federal prosecutors from going after the cannabis industry in states that have legalized, and that caused many to worry that a major cannabis crackdown was on the way. A major crackdown is still very possible, but Sessions said recently that the Department of Justice at least won’t be going after low-level cannabis offenders.

Sessions said federal prosecutors “haven’t been working small marijuana cases before, they are not going to be working them now.” He said his department will be going after cartels, gangs and specifically those growing cannabis on national park land.

“I’m not sure it really means anything,” Morgan Fox, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Cannabis News Box. “The Department of Justice doesn’t really have the resources to go after low-level marijuana consumers, but it does have the ability to interfere providers in medical states, which is a serious problem for people that are trying to use it for medical purposes.”

What’s still unclear is if Sessions will go after large cannabis businesses that he could deem to be criminal enterprises, based on current federal law. Fox said that traditionally federal attorneys in states that have legalized have decided which cannabis entities are criminal, and some of those attorneys were appointed by this administration, so there’s a chance some attorneys will try to go after businesses that are complying with state law.

“So far I haven’t seen anything to suggest that he is going to be taking the helm of what they should prosecute,” Fox said. “That being said, there might be some pressure, especially on some of the new ones that were just appointed, to make examples of certain businesses. It’s entirely possible, and it’s impossible to determine if they’re going to move forward with that. I think it would be politically problematic for them to do so, considering there’s roughly 90 percent support for medical marijuana nationwide.”

Though it’s quite possible certain cannabis businesses will be pursued by this administration and made an example of, Fox doesn’t believe Sessions will even attempt to take down the larger cannabis industry. It would simply be too daunting of a challenge.

“Dismantling these systems would be a tremendous use of resources that would hurt Americans, particularly the most vulnerable Americans, and it would put a lot of tax paying businesses out of business,” Fox said. “It’s kind of funny that the primary concerns of the DOJ, in terms of what they want to be targeting, are drug cartels. The best way to take money out of their hands is to regulate marijuana and put it into the hands of tax paying businesses.”